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Topic: Can sunlight affect wort? (Read 2853 times)

So I had my latest batch of IPA (all Falconer's Flight...looking forward to this one) cooling in an ice bath, from this afternoon's brew day. I had to leave for a couple hours and when I came home noticed the sun was ever so slightly peeking in on some of my wort. Just a little sliver through a window. Will this affect my wort?? Or is direct sunlight only bad for fermented beer?

The skunking compounds are not present until fermentation. It's a combination of certain compounds in the hop oils and B vitamins produced by the yeast that cause the skunking from light. wort is safe.

I've been searching the interweb for the actual article by Ray Daniels and can't find it, but memory tells me that beer needs to be fermented and contain riboflavin in order for skunking to take affect. Unfermented wort is safe.

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Jeff Gladish, Tampa (989.3, 175.1 Apparent Rennarian)Homebrewing since 1990AHA member since 1991, now a lifetime member BJCP judge since 1995

The skunking compounds are not present until fermentation. It's a combination of certain compounds in the hop oils and B vitamins produced by the yeast that cause the skunking from light. wort is safe.

+1, if your wort hadn't been pitched, then there is no chance of skunking.

The skunking compounds are not present until fermentation. It's a combination of certain compounds in the hop oils and B vitamins produced by the yeast that cause the skunking from light. wort is safe.

Good to know. I've always wondered why people can brew outside in direct sunlight with no problems. This explains that.

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Delmarva United Homebrewers - President by inverse coup - former president ousted himself.AHA Member since 2006BJCP Certified: B0958

The skunking compounds are not present until fermentation. It's a combination of certain compounds in the hop oils and B vitamins produced by the yeast that cause the skunking from light. wort is safe.

+1, if your wort hadn't been pitched, then there is no chance of skunking.

As I understand the chemistry, that is not true. The skunking comes from interactions with the isomerized alpha acids. Riboflavin (vitamin B) is one mechanism that contributes to this through a series of chemical reactions, but the iso-acids are also broken up by direct UV exposure. I believe the energetics are such that direct light exposure requires energies approaching the UV range, while the chemistry involving riboflavin is caused by light with a broader band of wavelengths out to as long as 500 nm (green light). Though you get riboflavin from yeast, it is also present in malt.

The skunking compound is part of the thiol family which has a ridiculous detection threshold, something like a few nano-grams per liter. Because of the very low detection threshold and the general unpleasant odor, thiols are put in things like natural gas to make it easy to detect.

As you'd expect, there are all sorts of factors involved that will determine how much it skunks and how easy it is to detect (hop level, beer color, pH, etc.). However, the worst light you can exposure your beer to is green (bad) to blue (worse) to UV (even worse). It is funny because I am writing this as I watch the Superbowl ads for Bud Light Platinum which appears to be packaged in blue bottles. For their sake I hope they are using those special lightstruck-resistent hop extracts for that.